Dej Loaf Talks Debut Album, Relationship With Meek Mill & Eminem

Detroit newcomer Dej Loaf recently spoke with XXL to discuss a variety of topics, including her anticipated debut, linking up with Meek Mill and her work with Eminem.

Below are some excerpts:

On her album: “I’m going to just take my time with it. I don’t want to put out just anything. I want to make sure it’s perfect. They’re already giving me hell about this and that. I’m just going to take my time with it. I’m not rushing it. If I feel confident enough next month and I got a good album, then, ‘Yeah, okay, we got it.’ I’m not going to rush it; I’m not going to take too long. I’ve got enough songs to be like, ‘Here’s an album.’ But everybody does that, that’s why their albums be… I’m just going to take my time with the album… I don’t [have a title yet]. I have a couple names but I’m just going to let it flow. I’m going to do the music and then [go with] whatever feeling I come up with.”

On her relationship with Meek Mill: “Yeah, Meek is cool. He reached out when he came home [from jail]. He’s interested in my music, he likes it. He hit me up on FaceTime, he was like, ‘Yo! Your music is crazy. If anybody riding with me right now, they’re listening to Dej Loaf. That’s all I’m playing.’ He was rapping my lyrics and he told me his favorite song was ‘I Got It’ on the Sell Sole mixtape. He just rocks with what I’m doing. We flew out to Miami and we did those records. He’s definitely cool. I could see us being really cool. The whole Dreamchasers family, they’re cool guys.”

On possibly working with DMX: “I spoke with DMX, he called me a couple of weeks ago. That’s something that [I hope to get on the album]. He already said he’s just a phone call away. My number is in his phone and his number is in my phone. That’s somebody who I would love to work with. Maybe Swizz Beatz can do the beat. That’ll be crazy.”

The concept of her debut: “I just want to re-tell my story. I did that on my first mixtape but a lot of people didn’t hear it; it’s called Just Do It. I just really told my story [on there], so I’m going to do it again. Just to reintroduce myself to the world, now that I have a lot of new people tuning in. I’m going to introduce myself and tell my story in stylish ways.”

On working with Eminem on “Detroit vs. Everybody”:
“I didn’t get to meet him yet, but the record was crazy. Royce Da 5’9 reached out for us to come to the studio and we went to the studio. He played the record and he was tellin’ me who he wanted on it. He was tellin’ me Big Sean, Danny Brown and just everybody who was on there. He was like, ‘You’ve got to get on it, too.’ You never know what’s going to get on what when you do records with people. Sometimes they never come out and you’ll be like, ‘What happened to that song we did?’ I didn’t know it was going to be on the album. He mentioned it but like I said, you never know. But when the tracklist came out and the track made the album, I was getting so many shout outs. I appreciate him for giving me that opportunity.”